Atlantic Top Heavy: In part three of our discussion of the overall improvement (or lack thereof) for each division, we take a look at the Atlantic. Home of the NBA Champion Boston Celtics, the Atlantic is also host two teams who made major, major changes this offseason and will give the Celtics a run for their money. It's also home to two teams who, well, definitely will not.
Starting at the top the Celtics are the team to beat. Their biggest question from a year ago – can they win with a young point guard like Rajon Rondo? – got answered in the most emphatic way this past season with Rondo not only running the team, but leading it at times. All-Stars Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce all return another year older (shouldn't be an issue at this stage of their careers) and another year smarter. They now know what it takes to be a champion and understand how to tune their games for the long haul. They lost bench players Sam Cassell, James Posey and P.J. Brown, but if some of their gambles – and you can't call Darius Miles anything but – pay off they won't miss a beat.
Following the Celtics the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers will definitely be playoff teams in 2009 barring any kind of major catastrophe. The Raps made arguably the East's biggest trade this summer, sending point guard T.J. Ford to Indiana for forward/center Jermaine O'Neal. O'Neal is finally healthy after two years and is looking to team with All-Star forward and Olympian Chris Bosh to give this team a dominant frontcourt – offensively and defensively. The Raps also made Jose Calderon a very rich man to lead this team, giving them stability at the point guard spot and creating one of the best mixes of talent in the league. With the underrated guard Anthony Parker and key role players like forwards Andrea Bargnani (take another step forward young fella) and Jamario Moon, look for the Raptors to challenge for a division title.
The Philadelphia 76ers won't be far behind. The East's big spenders, they made the biggest acquisition of the offseason when they lured All-Star forward Elton Brand away from the Los Angeles Clippers. The Sixers surprised many by making the playoffs last year, and then gave the Detroit Pistons all they could handle. It was widely accepted their missing pieces was a scorer and rebounder in the post, so Brand should make this team dominant. Add to that excellent depth with veterans like center Theo Ratliff and forward Donyell Marshall, newly-paid young talent guard Louis Williams and swingman Andre Iguodala, and the Sixers look like they could be the team to beat in the East very soon.
Don't consider it an upset if Toronto or Philly wins the division instead of Boston. That doesn't make them better, it just means the Celtics – like the Detroit Pistons – have now been there and done that and understand the regular season is a long tune-up for when the games really matter. They just have to be careful not to finish third, because that would mean no higher than a five seed in the playoffs.
Those are the haves. The have-nots are the New Jersey Nets and New York Knicks. The Knicks actually improved, adding a new head coach in Mike D'Antoni and starting the process of re-building around talent that fits together. They still have too many bloated contracts and have an open question as to what they will do with point guard Stephon Marbury, if anything, but getting D'Antoni means this team will have a more positive outlook and they should be more fun to watch than they were under Isiah Thomas. It won't translate into a playoff run or even all that many wins – in Year One – but it will be improvement.
Right alongside the Knicks in the basement will be the New Jersey Nets. They have tons of young talent, but after trading star forward Richard Jefferson to the Milwaukee Bucks for forwards Bobby Simmons (veteran) and Yi Jianlian (young), the Nets have tons of question marks. They have a solid backcourt with guards Devin Harris and Vince Carter, but the frontcourt needs to have at least one person step up from the group of centers Brook Lopez (rookie) and Josh Boone, and forwards Jianlian, Sean Williams and rookie Ryan Anderson to become the third and fourth scoring options on this team. Summer league was good for Lopez, but he needs to show it in real games. Veterans Simmons and Eduardo Najera can fill in, but they are not what the Nets want to rely upon. Coach Lawrence Frank will start the season at the top of the Hot Seat Watch.
As a division, though, the talent level rose. Adding in Jermaine O'Neal and Elton Brand on two promising young teams makes them better, the Celtics didn't lose anything, and as not good as the Nets and Knicks will be, they won't necessarily be worse than in 2007-08. That race for first and possibly the fourth seed in the East among the top three teams in this division will be well worth watching.
Check out the previous assessments of the Northwest Division and the Southeast Division.
McMillan Already Preaching Team: The case with any young team is always how do you get them to play together? It's easy to look at a roster and say that with all the talent they have they should win X amount of games, but that doesn't take into account – at all – the dynamics between the players involved. It doesn't take into account age, contract status, demeanor, how they react under adversity; these are the X-factors a coach has to juggle to get the wins.
In Portland, head coach Nate McMillan isn't going to wait for the season to start to start conditioning his plethora of young talent on the importance of sacrificing the individual for the greater good of the team.
"OK, we put together this team, now how can you help this team?" McMillan said to the Oregonian. "We may not need as many shots (from Outlaw), but we really needed him to score for us the last two years, and we need him this year, too. But it may be in a different role. We may need defense more than his offense because of where he is playing and who we have coming in. So, understand that that is what we need to be successful. It's not about just your shots. You will get those. I know that you need shots, and want shots. Everybody does. But you can't be single-minded like that.''
Obviously those words were about talented forward Travis Outlaw, but the sentiment could just as easily apply to Martell Webster, Jerryd Bayless, or even Greg Oden. Throw any of those guys into a five-on-five game and they could dominate offensively given the shots, but for a team to be successful they need to get on the same page as far as what is required from the individual to be a good teammate and win games.
Outlaw isn't going to be a problem. He isn't going to go out and demand shots, or take bad shots just to take shots. But, everyone – including assumed stars Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge - must be on the same page.
If they are not, the assumed improvement for the Portland Trail Blazers will not happen.
